Intimate portrayals of blind children in Mexico City are captured by the purely visual medium of photography in this series by Jed Fielding. That the image is a photograph relieves the taboo of one's own looking at these close-up portraits. A glance that might in life turn away can look longer. But looking longer crowds the thought with questions. What is it like behind those sightless eyes, within that dark interior? How does personality express itself, when facial expressions may be idiosyncratic or deadpan? Among the insights these photos evoke is the world of touch, touching and closeness among these subjects. Fingers caress faces, playmates huddle together. The intimacy realized by the sighted through a glance that can perceive across distance is for these children a world of touch and direct physical contact. Other portraits, such as Mexico City #347 (2000), unravel the intricacy of concepts of vision and looking. The young subject covers her face with her hand in a gesture that is reminiscent of protective shielding as well as of a game wholly dependent on sight, peekaboo. At the same time her startling whitened eye, sightless, is itself denied the seeing that that photographer and his camera cast back upon her. Look at me: Photographs from Mexico City by Jed Fielding, a 144-page book on the photo series, also accompanies. At the Chicago Cultural Center through July 5, 2009.

Image: Mexico City #347, 2000. Gelatin silver print. © 2009 Jed Fielding.